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The Dead South going for 40M views with music video

The greater accessibility of video editing technology has been great boon for the bluegrass world. With a relatively inexpensive camera, and a modern computer, most any group or artist can put together a nice video to present their music to the huge online world. There are even apps to allow you to edit video live from your phone!

In our world, when a video is viewed a couple hundred thousand times, people start getting excited, and approaching a millions is cause for dancing around. Now an alternative bluegrass group from Saskatchewan is watching their video bumping up against 40 million, and you can bet they are stoked about that!

The Dead South hail from Regina, the capital of the central Canadian province, and their blend of acoustic country, blues, and bluegrass has won over lots of YouTubers with their video for In Hell I’ll Be In Good Company. Maybe it’s the oddity of the subject matter, the striking visuals of the guys in old timey dress, or the sparsity of the banjo/cello accompaniment… whatever it is, the song has definitely hit a nerve online.

It was shot by Two Brother Films and directed by Zach Wilson, who was crowned Video Director of the Year by the Western Canadian Music Awards for his work on this project.

The band lists their membership as Nate Hilts on guitar and vocals, Scott Pringle on mandolin and vocals, with Danny Kenyon on cello, Eliza Mary Doyle on banjo, and Erik Mehlson on cello.

They will be representing bluegrass later this month on The Rock Boat, a Caribbean cruise leaving New Orleans on January 30, and hitting Progreso and Cozumel in Mexico before returning on February 4.

About the Author

John Lawless

John had served as primary author and editor for The Bluegrass Blog from its launch in 2006 until being folded into Bluegrass Today in September of 2011. He continues in that capacity here, managing a strong team of columnists and correspondents.